2012: The year in editorials

So long, 2012. This year was the election year that never ended, from the spring municipal elections on to the recalls, on to the fall primaries and finally the fall elections.

Today we're reposting our most-read editorials, op-ed columns and letters to the editor, according to Daily Herald Media web traffic. Accordingly, many of the most-clicked stories were those that inspired passionate, sometimes fierce, debates among readers in the comments section.

Here are some excerpts of our most-clicked editorials from 2012:

July 5: Merrill crash was tragic, but shouldn't be a secret

Today marks four weeks since the June 7 crash in Merrill that claimed the lives of Jessica Hartwig, 33, and Misty Glisch, 31, and hospitalized Jerrica Woller, 29, and Ashley Baumann, 24.

Police and the district attorney's office still have not released the crash report. No one has been charged in the crash, and members of the public haven't received any information about what police know, what they're investigating and when, if ever, they plan to make information available.

First and foremost, the death of two young women and injury of two others is a tragedy. The families who lost their daughters and sisters are grieving, and that sense of loss ripples throughout the community to touch loved ones, friends, acquaintances. ...

In mid-June, police were waiting on an autopsy report on one of the women, as well as Wisconsin State Patrol reconstruction. But even if, weeks later, police don't have complete information, there is no good reason to deny releasing an update on the investigation, what is known and what is yet to be determined.

We're all saddened by the loss of life in the crash. The public has a right to know what happened.

March 9: Anti-Galloway activist can't be believed

Why did John Spiegelhoff sign the petition to recall state Sen. Pam Galloway? His statements to the Wausau Daily Herald have been inconsistent and appear to be an attempt to evade responsibility for an action he should never have taken. ...

As a committed activist, Spiegelhoff knew that he was not Galloway's constituent. ... But Spiegelhoff's signature appears on the recall petitions that were made public by the Government Accountability Board, alongside those of Marathon County Democratic Party Chairman Jeff Johnson and recall organizer Nancy Tabaka-Stencil.

When a letter to the editor from Republican Party of Marathon County Chairman Bruce Trueblood pointed this out, the Wausau Daily Herald sought a response from Spiegelhoff. His response: He had "screwed up," but it was an accident. ... (A)n email obtained by the Daily Herald from the Committee to Elect a Republican Senate tells a different story about Spiegelhoff.

"I signed a petition to recall you two minutes after 12 midnight last night," Spiegelhoff wrote on Nov. 15 to Galloway's office. "Just thought you would like to know this."

When the Daily Herald this week confronted Spiegelhoff with that email, he said that there was no intent to commit fraud. ...

Spiegelhoff's actions undermine the credibility of his own political cause. And his instinct to explain away the signature to avoid taking responsibility for his actions - if his explanation last month wasn't an outright lie, it was something very close to one - is troubling for someone who is seeking to enter public office.

Feb. 23: Secrecy pledge needlessly excludes public

In an interview this week with the Wausau Daily Herald Editorial Board, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, defended his attempts to shield state redistricting documents from public view.

The new election maps, drawn by the Republican-controlled Legislature, are the subject of a lawsuit in federal court. That trial continues today, and its outcome will decide whether the maps will stand as drawn.

We'll leave that legal question to the courts. But whether or not they stand, the extreme secrecy of the process by which legislators created the maps was a mistake, and Wisconsin deserved better.

Fitzgerald has taken the position that communications among lawmakers and between them and a private law firm they retained ought to be protected, private communications. He argued that this allowed lawmakers to speak freely as the process unfolded. In fact, that was so important that GOP leaders went so far as to require their party's legislators to sign a legal pledge of secrecy pertaining to those discussions. ...

What did not seem to have occurred to Fitzgerald was that the GOP could have voluntarily conducted redistricting in the light of day.

In fact, for such a charged, partisan and obviously important process as redistricting, the public would have benefited from an abundance of sunlight. And we argue that, by building public confidence in the process, Fitzgerald's Republican legislators would have benefited, too.

What we got instead was a defensive, secretive process that makes legislative leaders appear paranoid and petty. Political parties have closed caucus meetings all the time. To require that members sign a pledge of secrecy only adds to the perception that GOP leaders had something to hide.

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2012: The year in editorials

So long, 2012. This year was the election year that never ended, from the spring municipal elections on to the recalls, on to the fall primaries and finally the fall elections.

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